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Sunday, August 31, 2014

As the last event of the Relay for Life season takes place today, Bixyl Shuftan takes a look back at the Relay Weekend last month. As it had been an eventful time in the news, the series of pictures of the track was delayed in publishing. But it was just delayed and not forgotten. And so here are the pictures.

Picture from Anne Brightstar on Facebook, she wrote that's actually Torley Linden there in the female avatar, quoting, "Torley started out in SL as Torley Torgeson Sr., a young male avatar in his 20s who carried around a synth. Due to some crazy time warp in SL, Torley Torgeson Sr. was replaced by his daughter Torley Torgeson Jr. a few months after joining SL. Torley Jr. was for a time replaced by a Bunny Torley, but eventually came back and the current Torley is once again Torley Jr. (female)." (S)he didn't have an explanation for these "Torley warp holes," though each one always had a preference for the same colors, watermelon pink and green.

But the first thing I noticed in this picture was how shaggy Anne looked in that outfit. Even her hair matched the color of those fuzzy pants.

Join Us for the 2014 Relay For Life of Second Life Wrap Up Celebration!
August 31, 2014
Broadcast on T1 Radio

T1 Radio will be on the air preceding the ceremony, so please arrive early!

10AM SLT – Nikki, Sting, Dawn and Random close out the A-W-E-S-O-M-E 2014 Season
Announcements to include:

2014 Relay For Life of Second Life Updated Fundraising Club Awards
2014 Relay For Life of Second Life Fun and Spontaneous Awards
2014 Relay For Life of Second Life Convio Final Awards
2014 Relay For Life of Second Life Spirit Awards
2015 Relay For Life of Second Life Information and Announcements
And MORE!

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Each month seemed to offer something different to the tellers of the Podex Exchange. In June, the people coming by were talking about the Second Life Birthday, including a few more people than usual new to the world after hearing about it and coming by. In July, there was the Relay for Life weekend, and people coming by to buy Lindens to donate for a favorite team, or to the Relay funds in general. By the time August came around, the Relay was winding down, and there were more college-age residents hoping to relax a little before it was time for the next semester the following month. Between times customers came in, the tellers would talk amongst themselves about various happenings, such as the final Relay event on August 31st, the Lovecraft festival, or something that had seemingly come up from out of the blue: the "Ice Bucket Challenge."

In the middle of one such discussion, someone walked in. He wasn't wearing much, just a pair of swimming trunks. His body looked like it was made for the water, his blueish skin had a few stripes in places with fins in places on his arms and legs with the largest one on his back. He had a long thick tail that poked through the swimwear in the back. He carried a surfboard with him.

"Um, can I help you?" One of the tellers asked.

"Yeah dude," the trunked visitor asked, "I need to get some extra lin-dios to grab a spot at this bodacious place that just opened up a surfer spot, Sunny Beach in the Sunweaver Estates, man. It's real epic."

"Um, sure. Well, we offer the best rates of third party Linden exchangers, and will sell Linden dollars for a wide range of world currencies."

"Cool beans dude, but I'll just be usin' good ol' Ameri-can dollars, man."

"Certainly Sir, just fill out this form. If you've never been here before, new clients are limited to 25,000 Lindens in purchases."

"Whoah dude, I don't need that much man. I'm jess getting a few parcels, not half a freakin' sim."

"No problem, just fill it out and you'll get your Lindens."

The visitor soon took care of the form and the electronic transfer was quickly done.

"There you are Sir, all done."

"Sweet! Now I don't have so far to travel to Sunny Beach, man."

"That's good, plan to be hanging ten soon?"

"Yep, though they keep suggesting I need a new gun or somethin.' Half the time I'm out there with people, this red fox keeps sayin' 'we're going to need a bigger board.'"

Friday, August 29, 2014

Grease Coakes is back with a review of a top-ranked Multiplayer Online Game: Guild Wars 2. Set on the fantasy world of Tyria, you play a character of one of several races and classes. Unlike other MMOs, the game requires a one time purchase with no monthly fees. So what did Grease think of the gameplay?

So what is being a wrestler in Second Life like? Theonlyjohnny Resident recently met up with former wrestler Crazysam Sorrowsong. Crazysam sat down for an interview and talked about a few things about how being a wrestler here on the Grid is like, as well as some about the wrestling scene itself.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

With the huge popularity of Facebook, some reports suggesting half the US alone uses it, many Second Life residents have been using it to keep in touch when not on Second Life. Trouble is, it has a number of questionable policies concerning privacy and other matters, not to mention it's insistence users use "real names" or risk being dropped. For an alternative, Wesley Regenbogen found the Avatar Social Network, where the residents of our virtual world can feel free to be their virtual selves.

I've heard some residents say, usually to their disappointment, that after having to be offline for several days, they find virtual life went smoothly without them, "Oh, so that's where you were." Not so Nydia Tungsten. After a few days of being offline, her friends and virtual family began to wonder. After about a week, her Angels group was quite worried. Finally came an update. While she had been in the hospital, her problem wasn't nearly as bad as feared and she would be coming home.

On the afternoon of Monday August 25, Nydia returned to Second Life with both a flurry of IMs, and cheers in group chats. Happiest of all was her partner Brandi Streusel whom logged on to give her a big hug. So what to do? Talk soon turned to having a party to celebrate. But Nydia also had in mind the calendar contest made to raise funds for the Angels Estates, which had portraits of the volunteers at the Sunny Beach club. So the decision was made to hold the party there, and Nydia herself would do the DJing.

Nydia's back, and behind the DJ booth. To celebrate, we're having a "Best in Model" night. Come to the Sunny Beach club and be surrounded by some of the best looking ladies in the Sunweaver Estates, make a bid on the volunteers for the calendar contest, and of course enjoy the tunnage of "DJ Naughty Nydia." There's a whopping 2500 Lindens on the board, so come and get it.

Brandi was sporting a slightly differently look part of the time. While Nydia was absent, she was going about in dark fur. But as some people thought it was cute, she had it on one more time.

The prize was split between Skylark LeFavre, Brandi Streusel, and Kera Berensohn. Lots of fun was had by all.

The calendar contest is still going on, with bids still being made at Sunny Beach. If you want an appearance in the calendar next to a beautiful girl or handsome guy, come over and make a bid.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

August 25, 2014, Seasons d’Alliez - The Relay Rockers presented the First Annual Alliez Mysterio Award as the team wrapped up their tenth Relay For Life of Second Life season with a party at Seasons dAlliez yesterday. This season saw the team set a Relay Rockers record for fundraising, and win several awards including the Returning Team Participation Award, voted by the coaches and fellow team captains.

The award, created in memory of the team’s late Co-Founder Alliez Mysterio, was presented to Dwen Dooley and Nikki Mathieson in recognition of their “Relentless Dedication and Enduring Contributions” to Relay For Life of Second Life.

2014 Relay Rockers Captain Ariel Stormcrow explained why the team created the award, citing Alliez’s pioneering efforts in the establishment of the estate system of Second Life, and her support of both Relay For Life and the Rocker’s team formed in 2005 by Trader Whiplash, Nuala Maracas and herself. “ Alliez saw the potential of the nascent private island sims and in 2005 her first sim, Rue d'Alliez opened. From that single island d'Alliez Estates spread over the grid, growing to more than 150 islands. She established a system of ownership and rentals that has provided a home to many residents of Second Life regardless of their virtual manifestations, lifestyles or interests.” said Ariel “From 2005 until breast cancer took her from us in 2013, Alliez was a steadfast supporter of both the Relay Rockers and Relay For Life of Second Life.”

Nuala Maracas, Founding Captain of the team presented the first of the two awards to Technology Division Chair Dwen Dooley. “When Relay began in 2005 Second Life was a different platform than it is today. While it represented the most advanced 3-D communications platform ever, it was far less sophisticated than the Second Life of 2014. Our Relay relied on simple scripts to collect donations.” Maracas added “Dwen Dooley, began to find new means to improve our Relay tools. He created new ways to sell items and to spread the word about our teams and our events. “.

The second award was presented to 2013-14 Event Chair Nikki Mathieson by Trader Whiplash. According to Trader, “Nikki Mathieson has graced Relay For Life with her steadfast determination, and her ability to find the right people for the right roles. She took the lessons learned from her predecessors and molded them into a vision of Relay that allows us all to Celebrate Remember and Fight Back as many teams walking together as one world”

Seasons dAlliez, the dAlliez Estates headquarters sim will host a permanent display honoring this year’s and future award winners. The award itself features a representation of the lighthouse which for many years served as the central focal point of Rue dAlliez, Alliez’s first island sim, which opened in January, 2005. (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/dAlliez%20Land%20Headquarters/96/196/34)

The afternoon started with a performance by Gina Gracemount. Gina, a supporter of the team and a Bid Me Bald victimteer helped the Rockers this season by raising L$ 120,067, a Bid Me Bald record for Live Performers.

Before presenting the awards, Trader recognized his teammates for their extraordinary fund raising efforts in 2014. The team which is normally one of the top fund raising teams raised a record $21,120 (L$ 5,280,120) and had achieved Relay’s highest level ‘Purple’ by early June. He also recognized several team members and supporters, including team sponsors dAlliez Estates, Rockcliffe University and Charmed Breedable Fashions. He also thanked Melodie Jigsaw, team builder for her creations of Relay-Stock, Rumble for Relay and the Team’s award winning campsite “Its a Small World Finishing the Fight”; JonyBlade Codesmith for his donation of a custom tour system for the Small World boat ride and Arizona Ballinger-Whiplash for creating the team’s graphics and the “Small World Shoppe” which won first place for Creative and Inventive Fundraising at this year’s Relay.

The evening concluded with a party hosted by the Rockers and featuring Trader and T1Radio’s Time Machine 60s rock show.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Ever need a place in which you can head to and just sit back and relax for a while? Wesley Regenbogen recently came across one: Aloha Beach. Here, one can play sports, dance to the music with a friend, or just sit back and watch the surf lap at the sand.

As the "Ice Bucket Challenge" has gone from an offbeat charity event to pop culture, it has made it's way into Second Life. One place where one can take it here in virtual reality is the SL Wrestling Community HQ building, where one can find a bucket, animation, and one of the personel to make a recording. Second Life Newser talked to one of the wrestlers there, Curt Bombastic, whom was more than happy to talk about how the challenge was providing some good publicity, as well as being for a good cause.

Blizzard recently announced the date for when the latest expansion for "World of Warcraft" is set to hit the store shelves, a few months from now in November. As the day "Warlords of Draenor" will be made available to WoW fans approaches, details about what the update offers have been revealed. The champion of the MMOs has also made news in other ways, sponsoring a real-life motorcycle building contest, and honoring a late entertainer whom was among it's players.

From Kara Trapdoor, "http://www.alsa.org/news/archive/als-ice-bucket-challenge.html
So I couldn't resist trying this in SL. It's for a good cause, so I
figured I'd do a shout out to SL and see if anyone is interested in
doing a photo, gif, video or stop-motion like I did here, list the sim
too so we all get to see some favorite sims in the process. I tagged a
few people at the end who I know like to explore and might be up for the
challenge. I'm sure everyone can do a better one than this one I did
late at night... let's see them!!﻿"

National Kidney
Foundation Benefit. We will be having it at our usual place, the Entainers Schedule Times Are Pacific Daylight Time GMT -8

Babygirl Noon- 1 pm. (DJ)

Saucy 1pm -2pm. (DJ)

MystiDoll- 2pm-3pm (DJ)

Immm- 3-4pm. (DJ)

DJ Ever 4-5pm.(DJ)

Madonna 5-6pm. (DJ)

Harmonia Trefoil 6-7pm (Live performer)

Cheribomb 7-8pm (DJ)

Maxim 8-9pm. (DJ)

We are very enthusiastic and eager to have this event. It is our third
to be held at the Caprice Darkrose Memorial. Come enjoy a day of music,
friendship and celebration showing our love for Caprice, and support a cause
near and dear to her heart.

100% of all donations go to the National Kidney Foundation's Second Life
Avatar, (NationalKidneyFoundation Resident). All of the entainers are
donating their time and performing for the enjoyment of all who come to the
event. Donations are greatly appreciated but not required to attend the
event.

Caprice Darkrose was a longtime resident of Second
Life . She passed away on May 3, 2014 at the age of 35, due to complications of
kidney disease, which she had battled for some time. Caprice was loved by many
people in Second Life, and leaves behind many friends and a lot of
memories.

By now, most of you have probably heard of the "Ice Bucket Challenge,"
people dumping buckets of ice water over their heads while recording it
on video as a way to promote awareness of the disease ALS and donating
money to research of it. Having gone viral, numerous personalities have taken the challenge, including Bill Gates, former President George W. Bush, Hulk Hogan, and Kermit the Frog. For ALS research, the challenge has been a great success with many times their normal total coming in.

It was probably only a matter of time before the challenge reached Second Life.

Tadeu Gartner's video is in Brazilian Portuguese, but the message is clear.

Do any of you the readers want to follow suit? Come up with your own "Ice Bucket Challenge" video, and if we like it, we'll show it here. And if you do a real-life one, please include your avatar name. Oh, and if you're from California, you might want to do an SL video only as the authorities are not too happy about anyone there doing the challenge in the middle of a drought.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Earlier this week, The Firestorm blog announced the release of their latest viewer: 4.6.7.42398.

We arrive once again at that time to update your version of the ever
popular Firestorm Viewer. Most notably this version brings Firestorm up
to LL’s version 3.7.8 with Project Interesting. With which you will
undoubtedly find world rendering to be much faster when logging into SL
or teleporting around. This version also comes with a lot of bug fixes
and a few cool new things.

A full summary of the new viewers changes can be found here: (link) Inara Pey also has written about the new viewer (here). Team Firestorm only continues to support three viewers, the newest one and the two most recent ones. The others are blocked from working.

Just as the Relay for Life is winding down in Second Life, it's just starting in the virtual world of InWorldz.

We are so excited about this 3rd season of Relay
For Life of InWorldz with the theme of A Future Without Cancer and all the
changes we has been working on. Let me take you on a quick walk through.

We will be kicking off the season on August 23rd
at the new home of Relay For Life of InWorldz on Muse Island at 9am IWT. If you
have not seen Muse Island yet, I urge you to stop by and enjoy a beautiful sim.
http://places.inworldz.com/Muse%20Island/74/87/22

This will be the third Relay season on the InWorldz Grid. Major events include the Fashion for Life from Sept 20 to 27, which already has several groups having joined, and the Jobs and Sevices Fair, where merchants and clubs can go look for help and musicians, builders, and others can show off their skills. The main event will be on November 1, which will go on from 9AM to 9PM InWorldz (and SL) time.

Last year the RFL in IW raised 325,000 InWorldz dollars (worth about 162,500 Lindens)

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Earlier this month, the Full Circle Club hosted one of the last events
of the Relay for Life's fundraising season, which officially closes this
Sunday August 24. Hearing about the event, Wesley Regenbogen went over to the club to interview two of the owners, Hope Dreamscape (hope4ever43) and Kammie Resident (kamaniya). They had much to say about their new club, and why they were hosting events.

Last Sunday August 17, Team ACTS of the Relay for Life held it's final event of the season. The event was held high above the Cody sim in a blimp.

Come join us for our Wrap Up party of a wonderful season!! We will be entertained by the tunes of Mani "Owlbear" Hancroft from 2pm to 4 pm SLT !!! Team ACTS would like to thank everyone for all of their help and such an awesome season! Everyone is welcome!!

There were quite a variety of avatars at the party, from furs to a number of tinies, including DJ Owlbear, and a "pony invasion" of about a dozen pony avatars.

As it turned out, one of the ponies was a familiar sight with the stovepipe hat and purplish glasses: RacerX Gullwing, whom had briefly changed from his familiar rabbit avatar. Someone joked he looked just the same as a pony. But don't expect the Giant Snails to be replaced by the denizens of Equestria anytime soon.

The Relay season will end with the Relay Wrap-Up on Sunday August 24 at 10 AM SL time.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Taken at the Vinyl Museum, one of the ladies takes on an interesting looking avatar that reminded me a little of the "gelatanous cube" monsters in Fantasy games. But this girl would rather slow dance and hug rather than attack. Though it still would be a "sticky" situation.

Some months ago, Wesley Regenbogen wrote a commentary around the issue "Is Second Life a game," expanding it to cover virtual worlds in general as he had experience in other places such as Cybertown. But it never did see print at the time. Today it's up finally, and Wesley had a few things to say about the issue, comparing virtual worlds and games and how they are different.

Gemma Cleanslate found an interesting place to explore: The Jungle. Created by Perry Krell and Leigh Elton Krell, the place offers much to explore and see with numerous animals and plant life. There's also a number of places to just relax. Gemma also found an old friend at the location. So who was it?

BAY CITY, SL (18th August, 2014) - Now in its third year, "Hot Bay City Nights" celebrates Bay City's mid-century theme as well as its large network of roads. The event will showcase vehicle makers who create automobiles from the Bay City "theme era," stretching from 1940 to 1965. The event features top Second Life™ vintage automakers.

Established vintage automobile designers will be found in the Bay City Fairgrounds, in the North Channel region, from August 23-30 to present the best in vintage and retro vehicles for all Second Life™ avatars.

Additional events will provide plenty for all to do, including the crowning of 2014's Miss Bay City and a number of charity car wash. The event will raise funds for Child's Play, a charity that provides toys and games for children in hospitals around the world. Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab™ and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life™ and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest Bay city group, and home to most Residents of Bay City.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

When it comes to avatars and avatar design, Xymbers Slade isn't an easy one to impress. But recently he came across a place that got his attention: TS Creations. The place had a number of knight avatars that he felt were well done. He met up with the owner, Topa Adamski, and they had a talk about designing the avatars, and other subjects.

The "Events This Week" section hasn't been updated in a few weeks, temporarily shelved as the paper worked on articles delayed by the Relay For Life Weekend, and it's related news stories. Before and since, some of the locations outside the Sunweaver/Angels community where the paper is located have stopped releasing schedules of the week ahead, so we had to do an increasing amount of guesswork.

The section is temporarily going inactive, perhaps only until next week, perhaps a few weeks, perhaps longer. Time will tell.

The 2014 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Across Second Life season will begin on September 1, 2014 and will continue until October 31, 2014.

The theme for the 2014 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Across Second Life is "Seasons of Pink". Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Across Second Life is part of the American Cancer Society and Relay For Life of Second Life.

The 2014 Making Strides Committee is led by Jessii2009 Warrhol, Chair and Gem Sunkiller, Co-Chair. Visit the following link for a complete committee list: http://makingstridessl.wordpress.com/about-making-strides/organizers/

Please contact Jessii2009 Warrhol or Gem Sunkiller in Second Life if you would like to get involved with the 2014 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer season in Second Life.

About Breast Cancer:
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States, other than skin cancer. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in women, after lung cancer.

The chance of a woman having invasive breast cancer some time during her life is about 1 in 8. The chance of dying from breast cancer is about 1 in 36. Breast cancer death rates have been going down. This is probably the result of finding the cancer earlier and better treatment. Right now there are more than 2.9 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.

Breast cancer also occurs in men. The American Cancer Society estimates for breast cancer in men in the United States for 2014 are:
About 2,360 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed
About 430 men will die from breast cancer
Breast cancer is about 100 times less common among men than among women. For men, the lifetime risk of getting breast cancer is about 1 in 1,000. The number of breast cancer cases in men relative to the population has been fairly stable over the last 30 years.
About Making Strides Against Breast Cancer:
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer or MSABC is the largest network of breast cancer awareness events in the nation, uniting more than 300 communities to finish the fight. Every breast cancer walk and event is an incredible and inspiring opportunity to honor those who have battled breast cancer, raise awareness about what we can do to reduce our breast cancer risk, and race money to help the American Cancer Society fight the disease with research, information, services, and access to mammograms for women who need them.

About The American Cancer Society:
For more than 100 years, the American Cancer Society (ACS) has worked relentlessly to save lives and create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. Together with millions of our supporters worldwide, we help people stay well, help people get well, find cures, and fight back against cancer.

For more information please visit the sites below:
http://makingstridessl.wordpress.com/

Monday, August 18, 2014

Earlier this summer, we interviewed Prokofy Neva, an outspoken, sometimes controversial figure in Second Life. Prokofy had much on his mind as we talked. In the second part of the interview, he discussed last year's third-party Linden exchange services' ban and the recent controversy about content creators' rights. He also talked about his opinions about the plans for a new Grid, and why Second Life hasn't caught on with the masses like Twitter and Facebook have. One thing that might take some critics by surprise, he had a few kind words for a friend.

Ever feel like going for a round of golf but there's no course nearby or the fees are a bit steep? Well, as it turns out there's a golf course here in Second Life. Wesley Regenbogen takes a look at the Areo Golf club, which offers a course of eighteen holes. So did he feel the place was up to par?

On Saturday the 16th of August, the Virtual Ability community (VAI) celebrated six wonderfully successful years since the organisation opened its first island in Second Life. VAI held a party for its community. DJ Danger Lytton provided great tunes for listening and dancing. The dance floor was surrounded by slideshows and photo boards filled with memories of the community's numerous activities since its start in 2008.

While it began operation as The Heron Sanctuary in 2007, Virtual Ability,® Inc. opened their first island in 2008, with a mission to enable people with a wide range of disabilities by providing a supporting environment for them to enter and thrive in online virtual worlds like Second Life®.

Since its inception, the community has grown in size to nearly 1,000 members comprised of people with disabilities, their friends, families and caregivers, along with medical personnel, researchers and educators from all across the world. Virtual Ability owns six SL islands.

In keeping with its mission, Virtual Ability partners with different organizations on initiatives like AVESS, developing best practices for providing on-line peer-to-peer support services for military amputees and their families. VAI also provides inworld services, employment and accessibility information for people with disabilities. Virtual Ability hosts two annual professional conferences: the Mental Health Symposium in spring and the International Disability Rights Affirmation Conference (IDRAC), coming up in early October this year.

The group looks forward to many more years of activity, continued peer support and growth in virtual worlds. For more information about the organization, visit our website at http://www.virtualability.org.

A TOG II tank, probably the most popular of the Premium tanks in the "World of Tanks" online game, that I found in SL. As it had a VICE combat system, looks like one would be able to have a tank match with it as well. But would it's slow speed mean it depends almost completely on it's WoT popularity to even see a battlefield here?